How I Built This with Guy Raz

Planet: Will Marshall and Robbie Schingler

Dec 13, 2021

Will Marshall and Robbie Schingler, co-founders of Planet, share their journey from NASA to launching small satellites that capture daily images of Earth. They discuss the initial challenges of building an agile startup in a garage while tackling resource constraints. Topics include their first breakthrough satellite images and the mission to photograph every tree on the planet. They also explore ethical uses of satellite data for environmental crises and the exciting future of satellite technology amidst falling launch costs.

01:00:28

Episode guests

Robbie Schingler

Will Marshall

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

4min

From Satellites to Solutions

23min

Visionary Beginnings of Satellite Innovation

4min

Launching Innovation: From NASA to Satellites

16min

From Vision to Validation: Capturing the Earth from Space

5min

The Future of Satellite Technology

12min

The Dynamics of Collaboration and Persistence in Success

2min

Innovation and Discovery in Earth Imaging Satellites

3min

In 2010, rocket scientists Robbie Schingler and Will Marshall set an ambitious goal for themselves: to launch an aerospace mission with the speed and agility of a Silicon Valley startup. They set up shop in their garage, left their NASA jobs, and began pursuing their vision of building small, relatively inexpensive satellites to take daily images of the earth. Today, their company Planet has a fleet of roughly 200 satellites that capture millions of pictures daily, tracking everything from forest fires and oil spills to the health of coral reefs and crops. The company now has hundreds of clients around the world, and just went public on the NYSE. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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